Sign up to our Shopfloor Newsletter to get product and availability updates.
Etches Kit is a complete Etches synthesizer that you assemble yourself. The parts snap together. There's no soldering and nothing to source, so all you need is a small Phillips screwdriver and about twenty minutes.
In the Kit:
• Etches mainboard
• Etches top panel
• Daisy Seed 2 DFM, flashed with the latest firmware
• Knobs, keycaps, screws and standoffs
Mind the static.
Every kit is tested before it ships. After that, it's in your hands. Etches is an open circuit, and its chips can be damaged by static discharge you'll never see or feel. Ground yourself before you start, work on a hard surface rather than carpet, and hold the boards by their edges. The Daisy Seed arrives already seated in its headers, so you shouldn't need to handle it at all. We can't accept returns on components damaged after the kit is opened. The build instructions cover this in more detail, so please read them first.
Etches is a layered soundscape synthesizer. It's a palette for playing with sound, sketching melodic sections and building evolving tapestries. It moves between cinematic washes, percussive pizzicatos, and atmospheres worn smooth through ambient processing.
Inspired by live modular techniques, Etches is built upon classic synthesis and tape music traditions. Etches's main engine includes a complex oscillator, a splice recorder and built-in space processing.
We designed Etches to be performed. Every control is on the surface, and every gesture is audible the moment you make it. There are no traditional envelopes or filters here. You shape the timbre as you play.
Pick a root note, choose from eleven scales and modes, and the pads stay locked to that key while you move. It's hard to play a wrong note, which means you can focus on phrasing instead of finger positions.
At the center is a monophonic voice generator and a splice recorder with overdub, so you can layer sounds into something bigger than individual patches. An internal LFO moves against each splice, modulating where the recording starts and ends. It's a behavior we first used in our LAPS and JOTS pedals. Around all of that: a tape-style delay, and a stereo space processor you can get lost in.
Etches Features:
• Four articulation pads that control contour, timbre-shaping and animation
• Musical overdrive with soft clipping
• 160-second multi-splice recorder for capturing ideas and layering sounds
• Stereo space processor with tape-style delay and a pristine reverb
• Stereo output
• Runs on a standard Boss-style 9V power supply
Built in the open.
Etches is two PCBs joined by standoffs, and in the Kit you're the one joining them. We like it this way. The instrument is the object, and skipping the enclosure keeps it affordable too.
Handle with care.
Beautiful but also fragile, Etches is fine sitting on a desk, but if you're taking it to a gig or a friend's place, put it in something padded. A small keyboard case like this one works well (min 14"L x 8"W x 3"H / 36 × 21 × 8 cm)
What you'll need.
A few things aren't included. To build the Kit, you'll need a small Phillips screwdriver. To play it, Etches runs on a standard Boss-style 9V power supply (center-negative), sold separately. The output is a single 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo jack, so you'll need a Y-splitter or a TRS-to-dual-TS cable to run it into a mixer, interface, or amp. A case is sold separately too.
All audio demos below were performed and recorded live with only Etches processing. Demos by Taylor Deupree, Arovane and Micah Frank
Additional Resources
• Build instructions for the Kit are coming soon.
• See the Etches user manual for in depth details, sound design tips and more:
Download the Etches User Manual
• Already have Etches? Check out our Getting Started page
• Grab the latest Etches Firmware Update
